"Rebuilding Labor's Power" Conference Program

With more than 110 workshops or meetings scheduled, and record-breaking registration numbers, "Rebuilding Labor's Power" is shaping up to be a rabble-rousing weekend for labor! Check out updates on what's going on during the three-day event.

Click here to download a PDF of all the workshops and meetings.

Preconference Reception Thursday, April 10
Friday, April 11 Schedule
Freightliner Five Solidarity Reception, Friday at 9pm
Saturday, April 12 Schedule
Sunday, April 13 Schedule
Conference tracks
Conference themes

FRIDAY, APRIL 11

Click here to download a PDF of Friday's agenda.
10:00 am Registration Opens
9:00-5:00 Railroad Workers United Founding Convention
10:00-5:00 "China Hands" In-Depth Exchange on China
1:00-5:00 Pre-conference Meeting on Telecom

1:00-2:45 Workshops A (Click to view descriptions of Workshops A): Fighting Racism; Internal Organizing; Labor Solidarity with Palestine; Globalization: The Roots of Workers’ Immigration

3:00-4:45 Workshops B (Click to view descriptions of Workshops B): Labor in Latin America; Online Tools for Organizing; How to Lose Your Next Election; The Pension Crisis; Organizing in Right-to-Work States; Organizing Immigrant Workers; Black Labor History; Getting Ahead of Globalization; Film Screening

5:00-6:30 Meetings: Labor Techies; Workers Centers Meeting; International Guests Orientation; Film Screening

7:00-7:30 Music-Lynn Marie Smith

7:30-9:00 Main Session-"Democracy Is Power": Welcome: Maureen Taylor, State Chair, Michigan Welfare Rights Organization; Mark Brenner, Labor Notes; Robert Whiteside, Freightliner Five, United Auto Workers Local 3520; Dinamichel Avila Gomez, Women’s Support Committee, Cananea Mine Workers Union, Mexico; Sal Rosselli, President, United Healthcare Workers-West, SEIU; Chair: Wendy Thompson, Retired President, United Auto Workers Local 235

9:00 Freightliner Five Solidarity Reception • Cash Bar
9:00 International Guests Reception • Cash Bar

SATURDAY, APRIL 12

Click here to download a PDF of Saturday's agenda.
7:30 am Registration Opens
8:00-9:00 LGBT Caucus
8:30-9:00 Music-Aguila Negra

9:00-10:00 Main session-"Organizing Across Borders": Anita Chan, Contemporary China Center, Australian National University; Baldemar Velásquez, President, Farm Labor Organizing Committee; Chair: Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes

10:15-12:00 Workshops C (Click to view descriptions of Workshops C): International Solidarity: Focus on Asia; Labor and Politics; Fighting Raids and No-Match Letters; Pumping Up the Public Sector; Immigration and the Building Trades; Patients’ Rights, Workers’ Rights; Member-Driven Organizing; "Blame the Worker" Safety Programs; Solidarity Under Attack; Contract Campaigns; Building Alliances Between Unions and Workers Centers; Trends in Auto; Black Workers and Workplace Organization; Lessons from Labor History; Assertive Grievance Handling; Film Screening

12:00-1:45 Lunch (Click to view descriptions of lunchtime events): Art in Action Training; Latino/Immigrant Solidarity; Black Workers Caucus; Nurses Meeting

2:00-3:45 Workshops D (Click to view descriptions of Workshops D): Flyers and Newsletters; Student Labor Solidarity; Women’s Issues at Work; Bargaining for Social Justice; Fixing the Broken Health Care System; Innovative Organizing Strategies: Building Unions from the Bottom Up; Labor’s Role in Ending the War; Fighting Privatization; Neutrality Agreements and Organizing Deals; Shop Floor Tactics; Labor/Environmental Coalitions; Running for Union Office; Immigration Training for Labor Activists; Creative Tactics; Chinese Labor Movement

4:00-5:45 Union, Industry, and Sector Meetings (Click for descriptions): Public Employees; Building Trades; Teachers; Health Care Workers; Airline Workers; Railroad Workers; Campus Workers; UFCW; Bus Drivers; Teamsters; Postal; Steelworkers; SEIU; Verizon; Auto; Longshore; Physicians for a National Health Program; Film Screening

6:00-7:30 Free time • Meetings (Click here for descriptions): Meet the Authors: Books on Labor; "Discovering Robeson," one-person play by Tayo Aluko; Consult an Expert: "Ask Us Anything About…"; Black/Brown Dialogue; Health Care Reform

7:15-7:45 Music-Fruit of Labor

7:30-10:00 Banquet/Keynote Address: "Rebuilding Labor’s Power": Rose Ann DeMoro, Executive Director, California Nurses Association; Chair: Marsha Niemeijer, Labor Notes; Labor Notes Fundraiser; Troublemaker Awards

10:00 Open Mic Talent Show • Cash Bar

SUNDAY, APRIL 13

Click here to download a PDF of Sunday's agenda.
7:30 am Registration Opens

7:30-9:00 am: Meeting with Chinese Organizer

8:00-9:00 am: Meet the Labor Notes Editors; Meet International Auto Workers

9:00-10:30 Interest Meetings (Click here for descriptions): Chinese Labor Movement; Continental Living Wage Campaign; Fighting Wal-Mart; Staff Unions; Labor Media and New Technology; IWW; Environmental Working Group; Fighting RICO Suits; Post-Katrina Labor Solidarity; Labor Educators Swap Meet; VidaViva Health & Safety; Canadian Labour; Retirees; Labor Against the War; On the Campaign Trail–Labor and the 2008 Election; Young Workers and Activists; Film Screening

10:45-12:30 Workshops E (Click here for descriptions): Democracy Is Power; Contract Campaigns and Bargaining Table Tactics; Organizing in a Multiracial Workplace; Health and Safety for Immigrant Workers; Dealing with the Media; Taking Control of the Workplace; Building International Solidarity; Untangling the Web of Private Equity; Workers Centers: Building Power for Low-Wage Workers; Passing the Leadership Torch; Social Movement Unionism and Black Political Consciousness; Film Screening

12:30-1:00 Lunch
12:30-1:00 Music-Anne Feeney

1:00-2:00 Main session-"Troublemaking for the Long Haul": Cathy Austin, President, Canadian Auto Workers Local 88; Richard Berg, President, Teamsters Local 743; Chair: Yanira Merino, Laborers’ International Union

3:00-5:00 Global Unionism: The Prospects for International Grassroots Solidarity

Track Your Way Through the Conference

With more than 100 workshops and meetings, there’s a lot to keep you busy this weekend. These are some possible “tracks” that you and your group could follow throughout the conference. Click here to view a complete track listing.

Track 1: Nuts and Bolts
Track 2: Local Officers
Track 3: Organizing
Track 4: Health Care and Health Care Workers
Track 5: International
Track 6: Black Workers’ Issues
Track 7: Immigrant Workers
Track 8: Workers Centers
Track 9: China and the Chinese Labor Movement
Track 10: Auto Workers

Track highlights:

Chinese Labor Movement

Anita Chan: author of “Chinese Workers Under Assault” and prominent Chinese labor rights scholar and advocate as a main session speaker
Pre-Conference China Discussion: Friday, April 11 for invited guests to compare recent experiences and observations
The Chinese Labor Movement: Saturday, April 12 workshop on the Chinese labor movement designed to enlighten both experienced activists and those new to the topic
Special Interest Meeting: Sunday, April 13 meeting for those actively working on Chinese labor movement issues or those wishing to start
Experienced and knowledgeable China labor activists, academics and allies on Chinese labor issues will be coming from China, Hong Kong, Australia, Germany, UK, Canada and the U.S. to lend great depth and breadth to this track.

For full participation in the Labor and China Track, please arrange to arrive by the morning of Friday, April 11 and stay through late afternoon of Sunday, April 13. If you have any questions, suggestions, or proposals about this track, please contact Ellen David Friedman at ellendavidfriedman [at] hotmail [dot] com or 802-522-6227.

Black Workers Track

"Hopefully, one brick at a time, we can change corporate unions, to rank-n-file unions, by going back to the basics." -Nichele Fulmore; rank and file Teamster, Labor Notes conference participant, and one of the builders of the Black Workers track.

Friday, 3:00 pm: Black Labor History: The Black Freedom Struggle, the AFL-CIO and The Fight For a Genuine Labor Movement; Lessons Since The Civil Rights Era.

Saturday 10:15 am: Black Workers and Workplace Organization.

Saturday Lunch, 12:00 to 1:45 pm: Black Workers Caucus. The theme is "Black Workers: Organizing in the Face of Neoliberalism, Labor Retreat, and the Corporatization of Everything."

Sunday Workshops E Social Movement Unionism and African American Political Consciousness

There will be two interest meetings outside the Black Workers Track umbrella that are a high priority. The Black/Brown Dialogue Saturday at 6:00 pm and Post-Katrina Solidarity Sunday at 9:00 am

Contact track organizer Tim Schermerhorn for full track listing at 646-996-0401 or by emailing him at timtransit [at] yahoo [dot] com

Health Care Workers and Health Care Reform Track
Along with the keynote address by Rose Ann DeMoro of the California Nurses Association this track will include:

Workshops: Fixing the Broken Health Care System, and Patients' Rights, Workers' Rights.
Meetings: Health Care Workers, Nurses, and Health Care Reform.

Immigrant Workers Track
Along with the main session talk by Baldemar Velasquez, President of Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), this track will include:

Workshops: Organizing Immigrant Workers, Fighting Raids & No-Match Letters, Health and Safety for Immigrant Workers, Building Trades and Immigrant Workers, Labor and Latin America, Globalization: Roots of Immigration.
Meetings: Immigrant solidarity and May 1 immigrant rights actions planning.

Special pre-conference event

On Thursday, April 10 at 6 pm join the Detroit Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild reception for Mexico's Authentic Labor Front/Frente Auténtico del Trabajo

Location:
Constitutional Litigation Association
450 W. Fort St., Ste. 200
(Above the Anchor Bar)
Detroit, MI 48226

Click on image to download a flyer to promote this event.

Freightliner Five Solidarity Reception

Join us for a special reception for the "Freightliner Five", local officers of UAW 3520 in Cleveland, North Carolina who were fired from Freightliner Truck after leading workers out on strike after hitting a wall in contract negotiations.

Click here and here to read recent Labor Notes coverage on this struggle.

The reception will be at 9:00 pm in Regency A of Hyatt Regency of Dearborn. This event is open to the public.

Speakers: Robert Whiteside, Shop Chair, UAW 3520; Franklin Torrence, Civil Rights Committee Chair, UAW 3520 and founding member of NC CBTU; Allen Bradley, Skilled Trades Chair, UAW 3520; General Baker, retired Detroit Auto Worker; Leonard Riley, Co-chair National Longshore Workers Coalition, a leader of ILA 1422 in Charleston, South Carolina; Wendy Thompson, former President of UAW 235, American Axle.

THEMES

Workplace: Winning power on the job, shop floor organizing and resisting workplace restructuring.

Fighting Concessions: While many companies cry broke we will explore what we can do to fight back rather than give back.

Organizing: Organizing strategies that work to increase our numbers.

Health Care Now: How can labor respond to the problem of the U.S.' broken health care system?

Labor and Politics: What will it take to rebuild labor's political muscle?

Rebuilding the Labor Movement from the Bottom Up: Organizing for revival from below, connecting with worker centers and non-majority unions and building practical cross-federation solidarity.

Immigrant Rights: How can the labor movement deepen our alliances with workers fighting for a right to live and work free of government harassment and employer intimidation?

International Solidarity vs. Competition: Overcoming the race to the bottom by building solidarity across borders.

SPECIAL MEETINGS OR CAUCUSES

The Labor Notes Conference is a great place for like-minded activists to meet and organize among themselves. We have extra meeting rooms and will make every effort to provide space for participants who would like to schedule meetings or caucuses in addition to those listed in the agenda. Contact conference [at] labornotes [dot] org if you are interested in seeing us host your meeting at the conference.